Tag Archives: UV protection

Finding a way to prevent sunscreens from penetrating the skin

While nanosunscreens have been singled out for their possible impact on our health, the fact is many sunscreens contain dangerous ingredients penetrating the skin. A Dec. 14, 2015 news item on ScienceDaily describes some research into getting sunscreens to stay on the skin surface avoiding penetration,

A new sunscreen has been developed that encapsulates the UV-blocking compounds inside bio-adhesive nanoparticles, which adhere to the skin well, but do not penetrate beyond the skin’s surface. These properties resulted in highly effective UV protection in a mouse model, without the adverse effects observed with commercial sunscreens, including penetration into the bloodstream and generation of reactive oxygen species, which can damage DNA and lead to cancer.

A US National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) Dec. 14, 2015 news release, which originated the news item, expands on the theme (Note: Links have been removed),

Commercial sunscreens use compounds that effectively filter out damaging UV light. However, there is concern that these agents have a variety of harmful effects due to penetration past the surface skin. For example, these products have been found in human breast tissue and urine and are known to disrupt the normal function of some hormones. Also, the exposure of the UV filters to light can produce toxic reactive oxygen species that are destructive to cells and tissues and can cause tumors through DNA damage.

“This work applies a novel bioengineering idea to a little known but significant health problem, adds Jessica Tucker, Ph.D., Director of the NIBIB Program in Delivery Systems and Devices for Drugs and Biologics. “While we are all familiar with the benefits of sunscreen, the potential toxicities from sunscreen due to penetration into the body and creation of DNA-damaging agents are not well known. Bioengineering sunscreen to inhibit penetration and keep any DNA-damaging compounds isolated in the nanoparticle and away from the skin is a great example of how a sophisticated technology can be used to solve a problem affecting the health of millions of people.”

Bioengineers and dermatologists at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut combined their expertise in nanoparticle-based drug delivery and the molecular and cellular characteristics of the skin to address these potential health hazards of current commercial sunscreens.

The news release then goes on to provide some technical details,

The group encapsulated a commonly used sunscreen, padimate O (PO), inside a nanoparticle (a very small molecule often used to transport drugs and other agents into the body). PO is related to the better-known sunscreen PABA.

The bioadhesive nanoparticle containing the sunscreen PO was tested on pigs for penetration into the skin. A control group of pigs received the PO alone, not encapsulated in a nanoparticle. The PO penetrated beyond the surface layers of skin where it could potentially enter the bloodstream through blood vessels that are in the deeper skin layers. However, the PO inside the nanoparticle remained on the surface of the skin and did not penetrate into deeper layers.

Because the bioadhesive nanoparticles, or BNPs are larger than skin pores it was somewhat expected that they could not enter the body by that route. However, skin is full of hair follicles that are larger than BNPs and so could be a way for migration into the body. Surprisingly, BNPs did not pass through the hair follicle openings either. Tests indicated that the adhesive properties of the BNPs caused them to stick to the skin surface, unable to move through the hair follicles.

Further testing showed that the BNPs were water resistant and remained on the skin for a day or more, yet were easily removed by towel wiping. They also disappeared in several days through natural exfoliation of the surface skin.

BNPs enhance the effect of sunscreen

An important test was whether the BNP-encapsulated sunscreen retained its UV filtering properties. The researchers used a mouse model to test whether PO blocked sunburn when encapsulated in the BNPs. The BNP formulation successfully provided the same amount of UV protection as the commercial products applied directly to the skin of the hairless mouse model. Surprisingly, this was achieved even though the BNPs carried only a fraction (5%) of the amount of commercial sunblock applied to the mice.

Finally, the encapsulated sunscreen was tested for the formation of damaging oxygen-carrying molecules known as reactive oxygen species, (ROS) when exposed to UV light. The researchers hypothesized that any ROS created by the sunscreen’s interaction with UV would stay contained inside the BNP, unable to damage surrounding tissue. Following exposure to UV light, no damaging ROS were detected outside of the nanoparticle, indicating that any harmful agents that were formed remained inside of the nanoparticle, unable to make contact with the skin.

“We are extremely pleased with the properties and performance of our BNP formulation,” says senior author Mark Saltzman, Ph.D., Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science. “The sunscreen loaded BNPs combine the best properties of an effective sunscreen with a safety profile that alleviates the potential toxicities of the actual sunscreen product because it is encapsulated and literally never touches the skin.” Adds co-senior author, Michael Girardi, M.D. “Our nanoparticles performed as expected, however, these are preclinical findings. We are now in a position to assess the effects on human skin.”

So, all of this work has been done on animal models, which means that human clinical trials are the likely next step. As we wait, here’s a link to and a citation for this group’s paper,

A sunblock based on bioadhesive nanoparticles by Yang Deng, Asiri Ediriwickrema, Fan Yang, Julia Lewis, Michael Girardi, & W. Mark Saltzman. Nature Materials 14, 1278–1285 (2015) doi:10.1038/nmat4422 Published online 28 September 2015

This paper is behind a paywall.